Multiple applications benefit from the use of a timer. For example, some sensors produce a periodic signal based on a physical phenomenon. The frequency of the sensor output encodes a measurement of the physical phenomenon. To recover the measured value entails a determination of the frequency of the sensor's periodic signal. To determine the periodic signal's frequency, a timer can be used to measure the time for a complete cycle of the periodic signal. Other uses of electronic timers are prevalent as well. Some timers unfortunately consume a great deal of electrical power and may not be capable of measuring consecutive cycles of the periodic waveform.